As a computer system for a data center consolidates more and more, a network system serving as the base of the computer system becomes more complicated. For this reason, technology for simplifying the network system and its management is required. There is a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) as the simplification technology. FCoE is a standard for encapsulating a Fibre Channel (FC) frame within an Ethernet frame and operating it on the Ethernet. This technology enables both a network system (a communication system using the FC) coupling a computer to a storage apparatus and a network system (a communication system using the Ethernet and an IP (Internet Protocol)) coupling a computer to a terminal apparatus or a computer to a computer to be constructed from physically the same network apparatus. A reduction in the number of network interface cards (network adapters)/host bus adapters for the computers and storage apparatuses, and a reduction in the number of network cables and network apparatuses can be expected as the effects of the use of this technology.
As a management technology in FCoE, there is disclosed technology for allocating MAC (Media Access Control) addresses to computers or storage apparatuses that transmit the FCoE frame (see Patent Literature 1, for example).
The FCoE standard is becoming standardized according to the standards group ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and INCITS (International Committee for Information Technology Standards) T11, wherein function models and so on are specified (see Non Patent Literature 1, for example).